Everyone wants to be Short and Sweet; but how to be!

Universally, everybody agrees being short and sweet works well; but he/she often lands up being long and lingering! There are 2 schools of thoughts – one believes in being comprehensive and second puts its faith on being concise. Former invariably tends to become complex and then, people generally repel or react. Latter, when overtly conscious for being concise, tends to be too short to create meaningful understanding. So, both schools either tend to push away or fail to pull its audience.

Being short and sweet has lot to do with your state of mind, as also your notions, perceptions or traits! Here are some thoughts, which you can look at:

How not to be long

When you don’t present or communicate too long, it’s not that you would do it too short! You would fall in between – that’s what is actually needed.

Be focused.

Be simple by your thoughts and actions.

Give introduction of topic you want to discuss or present in very concise form.

Do not waste time to narrate problems. If you have to, do it in 2 or 3 sentences.
Come directly to point and lay emphasis on solutions.

Be conscious; but not concerned for being short!

Cut down on your zest to give opinions.

Give examples or quotes, only if these are directly relevant and would promote better understanding.

Avoid communicating when you are over-confident or under-confident, else you would end up talking lot of rubbish or little of rationale respectively.
When subdued, you speak too short! If you are too curt, people feel uncomfortable or offended!!

It is sensible to be shut, if your mind is overwhelmed by reaction or conflicting thoughts.

Do not fall prey to excuses or explanations.People would normally treat these as a cover-up!

Remember, your audience is not at your mercy; it is other way round!
If you are addressing a gathering, capacity of people to listen to you is no more than 35 to 45 minutes, after which all what you deliver would go overhead.
If you are talking one to one, generally you should take a pause after 2 to 3 sentences. Speak more, only if other person does not respond.

Avoid speaking under influence of your position, power or popularity. You would tend to speak too loud and long, which is bunk.

How to be sweet

It is easy to be sour, not sweet! But, to be sweet is significant!! Please remember the greatest equation of nature is “You get = What you give”.

So please imbibe these:

Be sincere.

Whatever you do, do it by heart. Don’t do it otherwise; you would be better off!

Your ego needs to ebb!

Listen more; speak shorter! People love that!!

Don’t have dual yardsticks – one for self and second for others. If you can’t help having it, write-off being sweet.

Understand your responsibility to your audience. Making it understand your views is more important than your own understanding.

Inspire people and don’t inflict intellectual assaults on them through hypocritical and hysterical statements!

Your body language reflects what you are! So, if you are relaxed and energized, your audience would be electrified!!

So, if you want to be a great influencer, be Focused, Sincere and Simple!

I am usually very eloquent while talking and tend to take too much of time, sometimes :). But this very article of yours surely going to help me in near future.

I am going to conduct some training sessions around different locations soon and I think this post of yours came just in time… will definitely take a leaf or two from this post prior to every training session I conduct! 🙂

The best take-away is to be “Focused, Sincere and Simple”
I realized that it takes a long time to get to results and so better start! I have started, and may be it will take some more time to get all this squared-off….!
Daliy delibarate action is helping!

For Verbal Communication –
a.) Using as less as possible the Jargon English words.
b.) Clear and steady voice with simple sentences.
c.) In conversation gives chance for others to speak.
d.) Using expression as a gestures then long words where-ever possible.

For Written Communication –
a.) Using as less as possible the Jargon English words.
b.) Point wise explanation, if possible using figures, graphs or pictures (useful in presentation).
c.) In e-mail communication correct and concise subject speaks 1000 words about the content of that e-mail.

In addition to above anything spoken or written with good sense of humor attached to it creates a true perception/or reflection about persons personality.

Thank you very much! I highly appreciate your ideas on verbal and written communications. These are very helpful!

Many people know what would make their communication short; but when it comes to doing it, they fail to do it actually. This post, in fact, brings out reasons behind this. For example, not many believe that being focused and simple is necessary to be appropriately short, though same people know mechanics of English to make it short. Hence, they fail to do it most of the time. So, the focus here is how characteristics play a vital role in actually doing what one desires!

I agree that everyone know what to do ? The problem actually lies in inculcating it in our daily life. Once the rule of being short and sweet became an habbit the problem resolve for which everyone needs to practice in achieving this wonderful idea.

I am thankful to you for bring this up on your post and letting us enlighten with great ideas.